St Andrews takes center stage, Augusta post-Helene, RIP Maxwell Berning, Reed speaks out on major access, Beck is headed to '25 majors, Asia-Pacific Am, R&A participation numbers, This, That and Reads
"Now we know what Reed has been up to thanks to LIV’s lighter schedule: delving into mid-19th century literature."
More likely it was something from the "Quote of the Day" desk calendar all of the LIV boys got from H.E. for Christmas (along with a check with more zeroes than Reed's Augusta University transcript).
"along with a check with more zeroes than Reed's Augusta University transcript" ...Good ... very good. Ever think about being a ghost writer for Geoff?
Geoff, very sad to read the news of Susie Maxwell Berning passing away. I was a friend to her late brother, Roger, for many years here in Arizona. Up until about 2018, Roger maintained one of the most impressive and extensive private golf memorabilia collections at his home. He converted a 4-car garage on his property to be able to display tens of thousands of artifacts. His stories about his sister and her career were pretty special. And I'll never forget the way he proudly showcased an autographed enlarged copy of Susie on the cover of one of the golf magazines from the 1970's. Susie was certainly a legend, and Roger's recollections of her successes was legendary. It was a beautiful thing to see Susie inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 with her family (including Roger) in attendance. I would suggest anyone wishing to know more about this woman search up her speech from that event. It was all class.
I love the visual quality of your newsletter. Double spacing, great use of paragraphs, font selection, etc. makes for an excellent reading experience. The content is top notch as usual.
It must be a bit of a struggle to come up with a non-fiction report. I scanned through the whole thing - was glad to be reminded of Maxwell Berning, smiled at "gulp, 30 years," and finally got to the Russacks review. I'll be looking in the Guardian for more of that fellow's writing. His critique of the food and spot on, if embarrassing, description of the visitors from the US we're all worth the wait.
Great stuff and loved the space to Maxwell. As far as ending the Civil War I don’t see one detail of how getting the players back together would work. Rory, once someone who could be looked to, has had a very erratic couple of years off the course. But Geoff how would you envision how a deal might work. And the quality of the fields are just one of many problems golf the sports/business has. Even the USGA scheduling the Woman’s Open in late May is somewhat questionable as this is by far the biggest event on their schedule. As far as the PGAT is concerned until the Tour gets rid of the FedEx Cup and begin scheduling ( yes and taking their show on the road) with better courses visually, golf continues to morph into tennis. Hope you were not serious about allowing more rest for the Players to rehab. Point of clarification the players are still allowed to use caddies?
I agree that a merger back is complicated, probably made worse by LIV not having continued pursuing the OWGR points. How you account for several years of play is made messier by the PGA Tour reducing field sizes, making it even harder for some kind of assimilation of players. Throw in the PGA Tour's lack of interest outside of North America due to players/TV contracts, and it becomes easier to see LIV and the European Tour merging as a world tour with PGA Tour cooperation/sanctioning.
Agree too on the USWO. I like it better in mid-summer but I'm sure it's dictated by TV.
And that's no joke on the recovery time stuff. It sounds like from Ryan's report that the memo blames this and slow play for needing to reduce field size. Remember, they put the whole mandatory wild caught salmon and grass fed beef stuff in the memo about food standards at Signature events, so it's hardly a shock they'd put this in writing.
Thanks Geoff for highlighting Evan Beck's win at the Mid-Am. Evan and I have a mutual friend and we stayed with this friend when Evan was playing in the USGA Four-Ball at Kiawah Island in 2023. Sadly, I was there as an official and not a player, but it was a great pleasure to meet Evan that week. He's a true "working" amateur as he was on his laptop and doing work calls at the house when he wasn't playing or practicing. It's obviously not easy to play at the level he can play while working fulltime and it's a credit to Evan and the others who are able to manage their schedules and have the talent to do this. It's always fun for me to see lifetime amateurs play so well knowing they have similar, or greater, demands on their time as I did when working.
Evan had been invited to the gathering of potential Walker Cup players the previous December and I know he really wants to make one of those teams. Hagestad got the nod last year after he beat Evan in the Mid-Am finals so I know his run to the title this year was really special. I hope he keeps up the great play and is indeed the Mid-Am rep on the team at Cypress. He will deserve it and is a great representative for the amateur game beyond age 25.
Thanks Steve for the insights. He's a great story in an event I struggle to get excited about with the re-converted professionals who get their status back too fast in my opinion. I'd be shocked if he and Stewart aren't both on the team if they show even decent form next summer. The USA team is going to be extremely young and who knows what'll happen between now and then with the Youth Derangement Syndrome leading to the Tour and LIV attempting to lure the next great things.
I'm with you that they are allowing some professionals back into the amateur game a little too quickly. I suspect we'll see even more of that if the rumors of the 2026 changes related to even more limitations to the number of graduates of the KFT and other feeder tours getting to the PGA Tour are true. Some really good players are going to realize the path isn't there and they'll find other jobs and go back to being an amateur. That's OK, but the waiting period needs to be a bit longer I think. Evan went that route and played some of the minor tours after graduating from Wake Forest, but has been otherwise "working" for a living since early 2018 while successfully following his amateur career. Not sure how long he had to wait to return to being an amateur, but would suspect it was longer than the six months that many seem to get now.
I read Mr McEwen's piece with a wry if cynical smile - could the dissatisfaction of "local residents " be more to do with WHICH courses they can play than how often? If you're stuck on Strathtyrum or playing off a tee so ridiculously forward on Jubilee as to be meaningless I can see where the frustration might come from, watching golf on a packed Old Course proceed at a pace hard pushed to keep up with glaciation
Watched a bit of the Dunhill. Weather looked glorious. All the LIV guys except Koepka had their LIV team garb on, which I guess has become the norm. It’s actually not terrible. I guess I’ve become inured to bad golf team uniforms by years of American sartorial atrocities at team competitions. The LIV stuff is mostly inoffensive. His Excellency’s outfit, however, was pretty bad. At least in that regard Jay had the upper hand.
That was a hell of a piece wasn't it? You don't normally get doctors to open up like that, including the very dignified Dr. El Attrache. Quite a thing to hear surgeons fed up with doing surgery, but such is the weirdness of baseball at this point. I thought the parallels with golf's swing speed pursuits was also interesting.
"Now we know what Reed has been up to thanks to LIV’s lighter schedule: delving into mid-19th century literature."
More likely it was something from the "Quote of the Day" desk calendar all of the LIV boys got from H.E. for Christmas (along with a check with more zeroes than Reed's Augusta University transcript).
You had to spoil my visions of him curled up in his reading chair with a pipe reading Emerson as Justine knit a holiday sweater!
"along with a check with more zeroes than Reed's Augusta University transcript" ...Good ... very good. Ever think about being a ghost writer for Geoff?
Geoff, very sad to read the news of Susie Maxwell Berning passing away. I was a friend to her late brother, Roger, for many years here in Arizona. Up until about 2018, Roger maintained one of the most impressive and extensive private golf memorabilia collections at his home. He converted a 4-car garage on his property to be able to display tens of thousands of artifacts. His stories about his sister and her career were pretty special. And I'll never forget the way he proudly showcased an autographed enlarged copy of Susie on the cover of one of the golf magazines from the 1970's. Susie was certainly a legend, and Roger's recollections of her successes was legendary. It was a beautiful thing to see Susie inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 with her family (including Roger) in attendance. I would suggest anyone wishing to know more about this woman search up her speech from that event. It was all class.
I love the visual quality of your newsletter. Double spacing, great use of paragraphs, font selection, etc. makes for an excellent reading experience. The content is top notch as usual.
Thanks, it's all Substack with assistance from most of the world's websites which are largely unreadable!
The temperatures at St. Andrews are just a wee bit lower than those Scottish summer temperatures enjoyed during the AIG Women's Open in August.
I do recommend that Jay (and everyone else) play Anstruther. It is such a fun course. For the fifth hole, I suggest hitting down the fourth fairway.
I think it's best Anstruther stay a secret with the right people!
It must be a bit of a struggle to come up with a non-fiction report. I scanned through the whole thing - was glad to be reminded of Maxwell Berning, smiled at "gulp, 30 years," and finally got to the Russacks review. I'll be looking in the Guardian for more of that fellow's writing. His critique of the food and spot on, if embarrassing, description of the visitors from the US we're all worth the wait.
Great stuff and loved the space to Maxwell. As far as ending the Civil War I don’t see one detail of how getting the players back together would work. Rory, once someone who could be looked to, has had a very erratic couple of years off the course. But Geoff how would you envision how a deal might work. And the quality of the fields are just one of many problems golf the sports/business has. Even the USGA scheduling the Woman’s Open in late May is somewhat questionable as this is by far the biggest event on their schedule. As far as the PGAT is concerned until the Tour gets rid of the FedEx Cup and begin scheduling ( yes and taking their show on the road) with better courses visually, golf continues to morph into tennis. Hope you were not serious about allowing more rest for the Players to rehab. Point of clarification the players are still allowed to use caddies?
I agree that a merger back is complicated, probably made worse by LIV not having continued pursuing the OWGR points. How you account for several years of play is made messier by the PGA Tour reducing field sizes, making it even harder for some kind of assimilation of players. Throw in the PGA Tour's lack of interest outside of North America due to players/TV contracts, and it becomes easier to see LIV and the European Tour merging as a world tour with PGA Tour cooperation/sanctioning.
Agree too on the USWO. I like it better in mid-summer but I'm sure it's dictated by TV.
And that's no joke on the recovery time stuff. It sounds like from Ryan's report that the memo blames this and slow play for needing to reduce field size. Remember, they put the whole mandatory wild caught salmon and grass fed beef stuff in the memo about food standards at Signature events, so it's hardly a shock they'd put this in writing.
But the Players who look so buff and work out daily will still be using caddies, lol!
Patrick Reed and the great Ralph Waldo Emerson in the same paragraph.
I didn’t have that on my bingo card, Geoff.
Reed is neither great nor misunderstood. We all understand him to be an unrepentant cheater.
If he perused the catalog of Emerson’s wonderful quotes, he’d learn that some may apply to his character; but not in a good way.
I had to read it three times to believe it! He is an old soul, except in the plays-the-game-by-the-rules department.
Thanks Geoff for highlighting Evan Beck's win at the Mid-Am. Evan and I have a mutual friend and we stayed with this friend when Evan was playing in the USGA Four-Ball at Kiawah Island in 2023. Sadly, I was there as an official and not a player, but it was a great pleasure to meet Evan that week. He's a true "working" amateur as he was on his laptop and doing work calls at the house when he wasn't playing or practicing. It's obviously not easy to play at the level he can play while working fulltime and it's a credit to Evan and the others who are able to manage their schedules and have the talent to do this. It's always fun for me to see lifetime amateurs play so well knowing they have similar, or greater, demands on their time as I did when working.
Evan had been invited to the gathering of potential Walker Cup players the previous December and I know he really wants to make one of those teams. Hagestad got the nod last year after he beat Evan in the Mid-Am finals so I know his run to the title this year was really special. I hope he keeps up the great play and is indeed the Mid-Am rep on the team at Cypress. He will deserve it and is a great representative for the amateur game beyond age 25.
Thanks Steve for the insights. He's a great story in an event I struggle to get excited about with the re-converted professionals who get their status back too fast in my opinion. I'd be shocked if he and Stewart aren't both on the team if they show even decent form next summer. The USA team is going to be extremely young and who knows what'll happen between now and then with the Youth Derangement Syndrome leading to the Tour and LIV attempting to lure the next great things.
I'm with you that they are allowing some professionals back into the amateur game a little too quickly. I suspect we'll see even more of that if the rumors of the 2026 changes related to even more limitations to the number of graduates of the KFT and other feeder tours getting to the PGA Tour are true. Some really good players are going to realize the path isn't there and they'll find other jobs and go back to being an amateur. That's OK, but the waiting period needs to be a bit longer I think. Evan went that route and played some of the minor tours after graduating from Wake Forest, but has been otherwise "working" for a living since early 2018 while successfully following his amateur career. Not sure how long he had to wait to return to being an amateur, but would suspect it was longer than the six months that many seem to get now.
I read Mr McEwen's piece with a wry if cynical smile - could the dissatisfaction of "local residents " be more to do with WHICH courses they can play than how often? If you're stuck on Strathtyrum or playing off a tee so ridiculously forward on Jubilee as to be meaningless I can see where the frustration might come from, watching golf on a packed Old Course proceed at a pace hard pushed to keep up with glaciation
Watched a bit of the Dunhill. Weather looked glorious. All the LIV guys except Koepka had their LIV team garb on, which I guess has become the norm. It’s actually not terrible. I guess I’ve become inured to bad golf team uniforms by years of American sartorial atrocities at team competitions. The LIV stuff is mostly inoffensive. His Excellency’s outfit, however, was pretty bad. At least in that regard Jay had the upper hand.
Geoff, you missed any remarks on the installation of the Old Tom statue in st andrews
Coming Monday in the weekend roundup! I was waiting on some video of the ceremony. It looks superb!
With due respect to Geoff the best article today was about Tommy John surgery. Glute surgery next?
That was a hell of a piece wasn't it? You don't normally get doctors to open up like that, including the very dignified Dr. El Attrache. Quite a thing to hear surgeons fed up with doing surgery, but such is the weirdness of baseball at this point. I thought the parallels with golf's swing speed pursuits was also interesting.
where was that published
Under "Reads", sixth article down, Tommy John Surgery